


Love Letters Between A King And His Magician

by YellowAndVeritablyBonaFide



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Emotional, Hurt/Comfort, Love Letters, M/M, Magic Reveal, writer being a pretentious poet and pulling it off???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:06:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26617177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YellowAndVeritablyBonaFide/pseuds/YellowAndVeritablyBonaFide
Summary: This is a series of love letters between Merlin and Arthur that they never send, showing the progression of their relationship over a year.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Love Letters Between A King And His Magician

**Author's Note:**

> This is so pretentious but I kinda really like it so please let me know what you think!
> 
> Also I am aware that my last post was very /intense/ so I hope this can bring back my usual writing tone

30/04/—

Dear Prat,

I fell for you because of your gold. Not your hair, nor your wealth. Your gold glitters with ambition and that is what makes you great. You wish to be better than your father, better than the mightiest fighter, the best. You will be. You are. Because my eyes might be gold but your blood is. The very thing keeping your body alive is the thing–the very essence–of everything that is great about you. Your gold shines. Surrounds your being like a halo. You are heavenly. You are amazing. You are gold. 

Oh, to be a magician in love with a king.

Love,

Your idiot

•

14/05/—

To the idiot that owns my heart,

Before I got to know you, you were brilliant. You were this unattainable magic that I could never get my head around. You were smart and funny and cool. Like no one I had ever met. You introduced me to a life of adventure; one without the stresses of everyday life because nothing matters as nothing is permanent. I believed you but now I’m not so sure. I’m not sure if you counted feelings. Because I love you. I love you with all the blood in my body. I love you and I can feel it in my bones. When I am no longer alive and my flesh has been clawed from my skin, I will love you. My bones will carry the feeling until they decompose, then the soil will carry it until the next Big Bang. I’ve never considered life after death all that much but I need you to know that I will love you even when I am no longer capable of it.

Your prat,

Prince Arthur

•

29/06/—

Dear Arthur, 

To be quite so in love, like I am with you, is reckless. When I think about you–when I’m not with you–my heart aches as if without you next to me I am not whole. Half my heart is not there until you stand beside me again. I am only whole with you. To think about living without you is incomprehensible because my heart beats as surely as our love does. But to think about you always with me is hard to understand. My heart feels full to burst when you smile. You’re the reason I breathe. When your eyes hold someone else’s, my breath stops until you look at me again. I’m selfish in that way and I can never will myself to be sorry for it. I will never be sorry for holding you just that much tighter when we are with new people. I will never be sorry for kissing you in the middle of a dance floor. I will never be sorry for scaring people away with my overbearing affection for you. I will love you unapologetically because there is no other fathomable way to live.

Forever yours,

Merlin

•

01/07/—

Darling,

My hand dangles in the water. I can see it while lying on my front and waiting. The river trickles chills over my skin, sometimes little clumps of algae brush passed and make me jerk my hand out of the water. You laugh. The water you’re drinking dribbles down your chin gorgeously. You’ve never looked cuter. The sun in your hair makes it almost as gold as your eyes. I watch as you rest a flower crown atop my head, stealing my gold one for yourself. And, oh, how I wish our roles were reversed or our situation were different. But it’s not, so I chuckle and pretend it’s okay. But it’s not, because you would look beautiful with a kings crown on your head. I’m sorry for how things are. I would change everything in a heartbeat for you. What I feel can’t explain how my blood surges when you laugh at someone else’s jokes, or how my heart becomes faulty at the sight of you. And the river rushes over my fingers and I stare because nothing has ever been so simple as a river. It flows constantly. When there’s more water, it becomes faster and more erratic and dangerous. I suppose when I had less love for you things were simple. You are my single reason for living now and the more I feel, the more terrified I get. My hands are cold and when I pull them from the waters grasp, you take them instead. You hold them in your hands and rub warmth into them because you have always been so warm. The warmest. Your heart, your soul. You kiss my knuckles and now they’re searing hot and I’m quite convinced I’ll never be cold again.

Yours always,

Arthur

•

18/09/—

My Arthur,

Magic. I had said quietly. You had looked at me then with a look I hadn’t seen on your face before. Your eyes were the mirror to my soul. A storm brewed and I could see on the tip of your tongue that you wanted to yell at me to leave. You needed space, you needed normality, you needed everything that I am not. But oh how I want you to need me. Please, I say. Please look at me with something other than hurt and betrayal because I love you. And you say through gritted teeth what I knew you would always say. 

I don’t love you anymore. 

Do I fall to my knees? I don’t know. But I see your face twist into panic and the ceiling get further away. Falling has never felt so peaceful. I think I know why Icarus laughed as he fell. Maybe I shall hit my head and the pain will end permanently. But, I suppose, things are never easy for me because I wake up. And I hate myself for doing so as it puts you in the worst position. But then your worried eyebrows fall into view and you’re saying something like I love you but I refuse to believe something so ridiculous. Your voice breaks through the mist and you say what I didn’t think you would. 

I accept you, you say. 

My heart explodes and maybe I’m dying but I don’t think so. I feel your hand on the back of my head and your lips are moving against my cheek. Maybe benedictions, maybe curses. But I move my lips too and hope that I’m saying something sweet or romantic but I’m only forming a jumble of vowels that attest to my pain. You wince for me. I am on the floor of your room, the cold stone seeping through to my skin. To feel is to be alive and I’m not sure if I’m disappointed. I should be but I can’t, not with your face looking so lovely in the candlelight as you pick me up and place me gently on your bed. The last time this happened you showed me how much you love me. This time you tell me about what we can do together now that we have this out of the way, how we can rule together and bring magic back to the kingdom and prosper from it. You ask me to show you but I refuse to because this is all too good to be true. You say that it’s okay because you understand, you understand the fear I must have gone through. I lift my head to kiss you and you meet me half way, kissing me with the gentle ferocity of an untamed stallion and it takes me back to the first time. But the first time wasn’t nice. The first time was clouded with jealousy and mistrust and bitterness. This is sweeter than any dish at the banquet.

Your magician,

Merlin

•

23/09/—

My Merlin,

When you came to me that night crying, my love, asking me for hugs... I couldn’t think about anything other than how cute your ears look when you’re pink. You laid down right next to me so I lent over and gently kissed you before pulling you to my chest (with arms that have never been used so softly). Your warm skin burned me without malice–a clumsy fire fairy. I lay my face next to yours. I am happy.

Your Arthur

•

12/07/—

Dear Camelot on our wedding day,

Our story will live long in the hearts of warriors for our tale is so sweet but ridden with foe that it puts ancient heroes to shame. Fiction can only say so much. I hope that in a few generations that people can remember the story of a prat and his idiot and think about the true essence of love.

Your faithfully,

King Arthur & King Merlin


End file.
